The present invention relates to equipment that is suitable for portioning and placing food products, such as for portioning and placing cookie products, and methods of portioning and placing such cookie products. In particular, the present invention is directed to such a portioning and placing apparatus and method of portioning and placing where a cookie product can be portioned and placed directly into a tray or similar object.
Consumer food products that are simple and easy to prepare are desirable to consumers. With respect to ease of preparation, consumers enjoy food products that can be stored for long periods of time, e.g., by refrigeration or freezing. Also, products that can be quickly cooked and consumed are attractive to consumers. To this end, food products that are sold in a form for quick and easy preparation are highly desirable.
Conventional frozen cookie products may be sold to small vendors and retail shops that desire the convenience and quality of frozen cookie dough to make fresh baked cookies at the store location. Generally, these frozen cookie products are sold to the commercial consumer in bulk form. Other consumers, such as household consumers, prefer the frozen cookie products be packaged in generally smaller quantities and in a convenient form.
Typically, cookie dough is mixed in large volume mixers and portioned on high-speed lines forming individual cookies which are frozen and packaged to be baked at a later date. According to one known technique, cookie dough pieces are extruded from a die, cut to length, and deposited in rows on conveyors or continuous sheets of paper in varying numbers depending on the size of the cookie. Generally, these sheets are carried by conveyors and the cookies are subsequently frozen on the sheets, and the sheets are cut for packaging. Generally, for the commercial consumer the frozen cookie dough pieces are packaged on the cut sheets as bulk product in cartons for sale to the customer. However, for the household consumer, it is desirable to package the frozen cookie products in smaller more convenient packages, such as on paperboard. Thus, an additional transfer step is required in order to get a quantity of cookie pieces on such trays and then in packages, which requires additional handling operations that may be done by hand or performed by. separate processing equipment.
One example of a machine used to manufacture cookie dough pieces is produced by APV Baker, Inc. of Goldsboro, N.C., and is known as a wire cut machine. Generally this apparatus operates by forcing a continuous supply of cookie dough downward through shaping dies by using a conventional food product depositor. A cutting wire or knife is passed beneath each such die at repeated time intervals, thereby slicing off a short cylindrical (or otherwise-shaped) segment of the cookie dough, representing an individual cookie. As cookie dough is extruded from a die, paper of indefinite length is fed onto a conveyor belt that passes beneath the die. The belt is raised close to the die to allow the cookie dough to contact the paper and the height of the slug of dough is established. It is about the time the belt begins to be lowered from the highest position, that the wire or knife is passed through the dough to cut and form the individual cookie. The cutting wire is lowered and retracted below the advancing dough in preparation for the next cut. The die may be arranged to cut a single slug of dough for each wire stroke, typically used in a lab development process, or, have many openings in a row to produce numerous cookie pieces during each wire stroke. Generally, cams and lever arms are used in this type of equipment to control the relative motion.
Usually, in this process, the conveyor belt runs continuously, such that a row of cookies is deposited in a new position adjacent to the previous row with each wire stroke. Typically, the spacing is controlled by the speed of the conveyor. After a number of rows have been deposited in succession, additional speed may be temporarily added to the conveyor belt to create a larger gap between the two adjacent rows of cookies. In this manner, an array of cookie dough pieces can be deposited on a sheet of paper. Because the paper is continuous, the weight of previously deposited cookies (downstream of the deposition) keeps the paper moving with the conveyor both forward and in particular up and down. After the cookie dough contacts the paper to form the height of the slug of cookie dough, the conveyor is lowered. This lowering movement would tend to lift the paper off of the conveyor because the dough may be somewhat sticky without the weight of the previously deposited cookies downstream. In order to keep sufficient weight near the extrusion area, the paper is cut sufficiently downstream either before or after freezing the cookies. If to be packaged for the commercial customer, the paper is cut in proportion to a package design into which it will be placed. For the household or small-scale customer, the cookies are typically packaged into trays or similar cartons individually and as a separate process.
A problem of the above-described equipment and process for forming and packaging frozen cookie dough products is that a separate processing step must be used to package cookies in a tray or carton. That is, cookies must be removed from the sheet of paper or the paper must be severed such that cookies may be transferred to another storage or shipping media. As such, the resulting manufacturing process is inefficient and not cost effective to the end consumer.
The present invention is directed to methods and apparatus for portioning and placing one or more dough products, such as cookie dough, directly into a tray or other object that can be individually loaded, handled, and transported through the apparatus, thereby eliminating a need to further transfer the dough pieces or to further manipulate (i.e. cut) the material onto which the dough pieces are deposited. In accordance with the present invention, dough product pieces can be deposited directly onto the object that will be incorporated within a package design without otherwise modifying the object. In particular, the present invention is preferably directed to batch processing methods and apparatus whereby a complete row of cookie dough slugs may be simultaneously placed into a plurality of trays. More preferably, as will be described in the preferred embodiment below, trays for receiving cookie dough slugs are carried on a conveyor system and are positioned beneath a cookie dough depositing device. The trays are raised to contact the cookie dough and thereby form the height of a cookie dough slug. As the trays are lowered a blade or wire passes through the extruding stream of cookie dough thereby creating individual cookie dough slugs.
The present invention is directed to techniques of placing cookie dough slugs directly into a tray where the tray""s ability to move up and down and forward with a conveyor is improved in contrast to the need to use a continuous sheet of material as described above in the Background section. Specifically, a system is utilized to securely hold the tray in place while the tray is being lowered and cut off of the cookie dough slugs is taking place. Such resistance to tray pull away leads to the ability to portion and deposit cookie dough slugs directly into small and light trays. Furthermore, efficient and high-speed batch processing may be accomplished.
In one aspect of the present invention, an apparatus for depositing an extruded dough product onto a tray or discrete object is provided. Preferably, a driven conveyor, operatively supported on a support frame, is utilized for transporting the trays or objects along the conveyor in a machine direction that corresponds with a conveyor path. Preferably, the conveyor is driven by an index drive device that indexes the conveyor by predetermined amounts with rests in between subsequent drive actions.
In another aspect of the present invention, a driven extruder is preferably supported in a position along the conveyor path for extruding a dough product toward the conveyor. The apparatus preferably includes a driven cutoff mechanism for slicing the extruded dough product after a predetermined length of dough product is extruded. Preferably, a driven subframe is supported from the support frame such that it may move independently from the subframe and is positioned along the conveyor path. Preferably, the subframe may move the tray or object carried by the conveyor to a position with respect to the extruder for receiving extruded dough product from the extruder. Preferably, the apparatus further comprises a control system to move the subframe to deflect a portion of the conveyor based upon a desired position of the discrete object with respect to the extruder.
In another aspect of the present invention, the subframe further includes an object holding means for creating a positive holding force for holding the tray or object against the conveyor while the dough products are being placed on the tray or object. Preferably, the object holding means comprises a pressure differential means comprising a vacuum chamber supported by the subframe and creating a plenum positioned adjacent to the conveyor. Preferably, the plenum has at least one opening by which vacuum pressure differential can be applied to a surface of the discrete object.
A method in accordance with the present invention is characterized by including the steps of conveying a discrete object along a conveyor path by way of a driven conveyor; extruding dough product toward the conveyor from a position along the conveyor path from an driven extruder; and deflecting at least a conveyor portion from a normal transport position to a position closer to the extruder while the discrete object is positioned at least partially for receiving dough product from the extruder and moving the conveyor portion back to its normal transport position while providing a positive holding force acting to urge the discrete object toward the conveyor.
A method in accordance with the present invention is also preferably characterized by providing a driven subframe for selectively deflecting the conveyor portion toward the extruder and for moving the conveyor portion back to its normal transport position. The step of providing a positive holding force may be done by applying a vacuum pressure differential to a surface of the discrete object. Preferably, the step of conveying the discrete object is done as a series of indexed movements with rests in between wherein extruded dough is deposited onto the discrete object. The method may also comprise a step of cutting the dough product after a predetermined amount of dough product has been extruded and depositing a dough product slug onto a surface of the discrete object. Preferably, the discrete object is a tray. A plurality of discrete objects or trays may be conveyed in sequence along a single conveyor path or along a plurality of substantially parallel conveyor paths for receiving dough product from a multi-head extruder at the same time.
These and other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent in the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals are used to identify the same or similar parts in the several views.